


Consequences

by waterbird13



Series: Tumblr Fics [366]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Consequences, Gen, Hypnosis, Neurolinguistic Programming, Pissed Off Eliot, Protective Eliot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-04
Packaged: 2018-09-22 03:16:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9580160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterbird13/pseuds/waterbird13
Summary: If there were consequences to hypnotizing Hardison without his consent.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Two interconnected oneshots I did in response to the summary thought. Obviously not the kindest to Nate, and Sophie gets brought in for her own actions/complicity. I love both characters, I hate these actions.

Somehow, even given everything, Nate is still surprised to see his condo occupied. Eliot sits in front of the monitors, and, when he turns to face Nate, he looks pissed as hell.

Nate’s thrown, for a second. Eliot was with the reporter, and he hadn’t heard…but of course. Hardison, Parker, and Eliot. Always the three of them. When they have a problem, they go to each other. They would have called Eliot, and Eliot would have ditched even a pretty, smart reporter for this.

“Heard what you did to Hardison,” Eliot says lowly.

Nate shrugs, and throws his jacket over a chair. “Got the job done.”

“Not good enough, Nate,” he growls. “You don’t con your crew.”

“You do anything you can, to get the job done,” Nate corrects, finding his own seat. “I told Hardison already, just because he doesn’t have the stomach for it…”

“So, he told you he wanted to leave someday an’ you punish him for it?” Eliot asks.

“This wasn’t punishment, Eliot. You’re all free to go. Just say the word.”

“You thought you’d teach him a lesson, knock him down to size,” Eliot growls.

“I thought I’d do our damn job,” Nate snaps. “If you don’t like it, you can leave, but you won’t stop me from doing my job.”

“It’s my job to protect ‘em, and if you think I’ll let _you_  stand in the way of that…” Eliot levels off. He takes a deep breath. “It was one thing, her screwing ‘round with me, an’ you lettin’ her. To…what? Test a theory? For fun? I ain’t a fan of her makin’ me into her monkey, but at least it was just tea. It was just a suggestion, even if I didn’t know what she was doin’ to me.”

"Hypnosis is really…” Nate begins. Hypnosis is really just suggestions, similar to neurolinguistic programming, only accessing the unconscious on a different level. Just a suggestion Hardison was already willing and able to follow.

“I don’t care!” Eliot snaps. “You think they care? You think they wanna sit through your bullshit explanations, you tryin’ to justify yourself? You think they wanna hear one thing you an’ Sophie gotta say?” He takes a deep breath. “We’re people, Nate, even if you forget that. Even if you two think you can treat us like marks. No, worse. Tools. Like Hardison’s computer or Parker’s line. Use us, manipulate us, put us away.”

“That’s not…” Nate begins, but Eliot isn’t in the mood to let him speak.

“They don’t trust you,” Eliot says ruthlessly. “Hardison’s twitchin’ like a rabbit an’ it’s gonna take a while for him to sort himself out. Parker’s already asked twice how she can know what’s real in her head an’ what you put there.”

“I haven’t…”

“How’s she supposed to believe that?” Eliot asks. “How’re either of them supposed to trust you to lead this team, hell, even just be ‘round you, anymore? You used ‘em. You and Sophie conned the crew again. They can’t trust you.”

“And you?” Nate asks, looking at the hitter.

Eliot shrugs. “We joined this team ‘cause we trusted an honest man,” he says. “Think we all know how far you are from that.”

Nate doesn’t flinch, not in front of Eliot. 

“You find a piece of that man, you find somethin’,” Eliot says heavily, “or I will take them an’ run. It’s my job to protect ‘em, and I won’t let this crew—you—be the thing that hurts ‘em. We’ll be in the wind, an’ you can deal with your little Italian problem on your own,” he says, and then he stands, heading for the door.

Nate is almost positive Eliot is bluffing. Pretty sure, at least, that he’s not to the point of breaking up the crew and running yet, not when they expended so much effort to get him out of prison and reunite the crew. He’s pretty sure Eliot won’t do it, that it’s nothing more than empty bluster.

But he can’t call Eliot on it, can’t try to feel him out, can’t try to talk him down, even, because Eliot is already gone, leaving Nate alone in his still-dark condo.


	2. Chapter 2

They don’t see each other for several days, but once they’re all back at Nate’s place again, waiting for Hardison to begin a briefing for their new client, Sophie is quick to find something has changed.

Eliot is watching her and Nate like a hawk, like he watches a particularly troubling adversary before a fight begins. He keeps putting himself between them and Parker and Hardison.

Even at the briefing, Eliot sets up the couch so there’s an empty seat next to Parker, with him on her other side. He gives Sophie a hard look when she goes to take that seat, and she gets the hint, going to sit with Nate.

Once the job starts, Eliot seems to forcefully maneuver the two of them away from Nate and Sophie, keeping himself between them. He muscles into Nate’s space as team leader and changed up plays to achieve this and, amazingly, Nate lets him. He grits his teeth and Sophie wonders how long it will be before Nate snaps, but, right now, he lets Eliot get away with this.

When it’s obvious that there’s no way around Sophie and Parker going into the office together, Hardison, Parker, and Eliot all look at each other. Eliot’s whole body tenses, but he nods. He murmurs to Parker for a minute–she doesn’t catch what, but she does see him tap his earbud twice–and Parker nods at them both before following Sophie out, tense, not looking directly at her.

Parker does her job as well as ever, but she doesn’t talk to Sophie unless she has to, doesn’t even look at her, is more awkward on the grift than usual. They get in and out as fast as they can, and Parker is straight to business. Sophie feels like she’s lost something, even as she knows she’s missing something.

Eliot and Hardison check on Parker over the comms no less than five times. Each time she assures them that she’s fine, but not like she usually would, frustrated by their overbearing protection. No, now it sounds like a statement of fact, like their asking isn’t overkill at all.

And that’s the thing about this. Eliot keeping two of his team members at a distance, physically throwing his body between them and Parker and Hardison should look like overkill. But neither Parker nor Hardison have complained, or told Eliot to back off. Eliot hasn’t relaxed any. They all seem nervous, to put it mildly.

Once the others are gone for the night, she backs Nate into a corner and demands to know what’s going on. If he’s letting Eliot call shots, disorder his plans, then he knows something.

Nate looks over her shoulder. “Eliot, uh, mighta made some things clear the other night. Apparently they’re a little upset with us. After what we did to Hardison.”

“What we did?” she says, eyebrow raised. “You hypnotized him.”

“You helped me,” he says. “And you can pretend all you want you just answered a question, didn’t know what I would do, but I don’t think they’re going to buy that, do you? Besides, Eliot might have mentioned the tea thing.”

“Is he going on about that?” she says, rolling her eyes. “It was just a joke–harmless, really–”

“He says they feel used,” Nate interrupts. “Like they can’t trust us if we think it’s okay to do things like that.”

Sophie opens her mouth but closes it again. It’s ridiculous, really. They got a job done, and she might find what Nate did objectionable, but honestly, he’s right. It got the job done, and maybe was the only way to do so. They saved a small country.

“He may have mentioned them leaving,” Nate continues. “Taking them and running.”

“I told you they might leave, if you–”

“Don’t act like I’m alone in this,” Nate snaps. “I am not the only one in this, Sophie, dammit.”

The words settle heavily in the space between them for a moment. 

Sophie could go back to being an actress. She could go back to grifting on her own. She and Nate, if they could manage to keep it together, would make a halfway decent team. But then she thinks about the crew, and what they do. And she’s not ready to lose that.

“So, what do we do?” she asks.

Nate shrugs. “We convince them to stay. Figure something out.”

The words seem empty, especially as Sophie considers Parker today, stiff and unwilling, Hardison and Eliot in her ear, reassuring Parker they were listening, making sure she was okay. It will take a lot to fix that.

But, if they don’t want this team to crash and burn, she supposes they’re going to have to figure this out.


End file.
